Commune

Commune, a town in medieval western Europe that acquired self-governing municipal institutions. During the central and later period of the Middle Ages most of the towns west of the Baltic Sea in the north and the Adriatic Sea in the south acquired municipal institutions that have been loosely designated as communal.

No definition embraces satisfactorily every type of commune, but most were characterized by the oath binding the citizens or burghers of a town to mutual protection and assistance. Such an oath between equals, though analogous with other Germanic institutions, contrasts with the oath of vassalage typical of early medieval society, by which one promised obedience to a superior in return for protection. The body became an association, a communitas or universitas, capable of owning property and entering into agreements, of exercising varying degrees of jurisdiction over its members (who did not normally comprise the entire population of the town), and of exercising governmental powers. There were very marked regional differences between different types of communes. In northern and central Italy (and parts of southern France) the absence of powerful centralizing political authority and, to a lesser extent, the precocious economic development of the towns enabled the commune to acquire a degree of self-government that easily surpassed the transaction of municipal affairs. Here the towns conquered the intervening countryside and pursued independent diplomatic policies, and their de jure superiors, the Holy Roman emperor or the pope, were rarely able to exercise de facto supremacy. The stronger of these city-republics survived—at the expense of their weaker neighbours—into the Renaissance, though by this time most had fallen to a single ruler (signor). Milan and Florence continued as powerful states into the early modern period and Venice right up to the Napoleonic era.

The communes of Flanders were second only to the Italian communes in size and industrial and commercial organization; at times political relations between the count of Flanders, the French king (his overlord), and England gave the Flemish communes—Ghent in particular—a significant role in European affairs. In France, in “Germany” (i.e., the imperial territories north of the Alps), and in the Iberian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, the towns were “judicial islands” having their own law and transacting their own business within the field of what would now be styled “local government.” Here, as in the English borough, the king or overlord normally retained supremacy but was willing to part with control in detail in return for financial benefits and military or other services. Obviously there are exceptions to these regional generalizations, for each town differed from all others in its social and economic development.

The general importance in European history of the medieval commune lies perhaps in the social and political education acquired by the citizens through their exercise of self-government. It would be inaccurate, however, to imply that the communes were “democracies.” The life of all the towns was characterized by a struggle for control, as a result of which the wealthiest and most powerful citizens were usually more or less successful in monopolizing power. Within the communes oligarchy was the norm. The direct inheritance of the modern nation-state from the communes was small, despite their role in parliamentary institutions. When monarchies were sufficiently powerful, they sought to stamp out municipal patriotism and civic organization.

Certain rural zones were also organized as communes, normally in response to the need for collective agrarian organization (pasturage and other rights or property held in common), but their institutions were less elaborate than those of the urban communes.